Hackster's 1968 f100 CV Swap

[hackster]

Figured that I should post up an update to this....

Drove the truck out to Cars and Coffee on Saturday last weekend and it was good. Super gentle, not even close to boost.

Upon leaving there the truck died headed up to the freeway offramp. Managed to get the power shut down clear whatever was going on with it and it made it back home.

It did it again leaving the freeway (different freeway) and conveniently there was a police officer behind me.....he was rather aggitated at my situation, especially since I think he was getting ready to pull me over. He flipped his lights on and i got the truck started (still no accelerator pedal function) and limped it up and off the off ramp and then off the main road. He could sense my frustration, asked if I needed a hand and went on his merry way.

Setting a code this time and I could not get it to clear. Found out that the code has something to do with tac module, accelerator position switch or throttle body.

So I started to unplug TAC module and worked my way down the line until I could get the code cleared.

Limped it back home and started going through the troubleshooting steps. Spent the entire day on saturday going through all the TAC wiring, tac operation, grounds, power, signal and the like.

While doing some resistance testing on the pedal I began to find that the APP2 resistance and APP1 resistance were not reading anywhere near the factory specs and learned how the computer uses those signals together to determine actual pedal position.

I managed to track down a replacement at a local parts place and picked it up about 10 minutes before they closed.

Got it installed and I have not seen that code again. Back to getting MAF and Knock codes now

I am trying to get all the little details done now. One thing that was bothering me terribly were the ugly ass stock valve covers with the bosses for the coil packs.

I looked for weeks for the right setup to just buy new but could not come up with anything that I liked so I went to town on the stockers cleaning them up.

I cut off all the bosses and filled the non structural holes with JB weld. THen ground everything down all nice and flush and went over the entire valve cover with a DA to get it smooth.

I am sure you have all seen a stock cover, so here is my cut down post next to a finished one.



Here is the finished product in better light. I think they look good, hit it with some VHT Wrinkle black and baked it on for an hour in my makeshift oven. Cardboard box sealed up with a hair dryer running in a hole cut in the box.



Much better than the silver crap with the posts on it.



Also managed to take my very, very understanding and super excited better half out for a first little drive. To say she was excited is an understatement.



And I have the PLX stuff up and running very nicely now. Stuff is pretty slick and I am super happy with the operation. Running a tablet via bluetooth and being able to see diagnostics, guages and log data all while not hooked to anything is pretty bad ass.

Here is a screen shot, guages are totally customizable but this is the Dash Command setup.

Would buy again in a heartbeat.



Managed to snap a quick photo of the truck out and about with some descent sunlight last night out trying out the gas pedal some more.


Insert photo here when Photobucket decides to upload my photos.






Was a long weekend of frustration and to top it off I put a dent in the drivers door on a curb. Its all the way at the bottom of the door, but its still there......It made me literally sick to my stomach. I think I made this thing too nice for me to own, I like to use stuff

[hackster]

I thought that there would be more traffic on this on here....


I am still losing sleep over that stupid dent. Its small, like a door ding and all the way at the bottom of the door, but it just makes my stomach turn thinking about it right now....

Devils Own kit showed up at the office this morning. Its a nice little piece, little spendy for what it is though.

Injectors, MAP sensor showed up yesterday so I am pretty much ready to tear into the truck install that stuff and take it to the tuner.



Wheels shipped out yesterday and should be here at my office on Thursday so hoping to get tires mounted up Thursday or Friday to check for fitment.

I raised up the front last night and took some measurements on the frontend. 255/40/20 might just fit....might not have any up travel but they might fit.

[hackster]

Little update, even though this thread seems dead....


So wheels showed up yesterday and they are beautiful. I have had some nice wheels in my day, but these are far nicer. Attention to detail like hidden valve stems on the backside of the wheels tucked behind a spoke and full paint and polish on the backside of the wheels mounting surface is just amazing.

Got everything in the truck and headed to Americas tire where my tires await.

All wheels fit up just fine so that was a good thing, brake clearance was good all the way around and offset on the fronts was perfect. Rears could be pushed in quite a bit more....more on that later.

First problem we ran into was the rear tires. 315/35/20 michelin next to a 315 sumitomo...



They were a full inch wider than the sumitomo's and we knew it would not fit.

I had ordered in a full set of 295/35/20 just in case as well. They were the same width as the 315 sumitomos and look awesome on the wheels, nice and square.



Tyson doing a great job of mounting the tires....new jaws on the wheel machine. We spent almost four hours messing around with this yesterday.



So, the problem I ran into was that the rear wheels did not fit....by a long shot. I thought I would have more room than I did.

Drove home on two new fronts and two old rears and was pretty irritated at that point.

Talked to the Chris the painter and told him I was either going to roll the lips or cut them......

So I took a ginder with the flapper wheel to the lips of the rear fenders....brand new paint yep and hitting it with a grinder..

Luckily I am pretty skilled with a grinder and did not mess up any of the paint anywhere. so it will just be a little touch up on the backside of the lip and be good to go.





Fronts barely clear, I really need to figure out how to move that front end back a little bit cause the wheel is to the front of the wheel well not centered but nothing I can do about it right now.

[Calfdemon]

Your thread is not dead. I look every time you update, I just dont post like most others. The way to tell is keep an eye on your thread views. You will see your numbers climb quite a bit with each update.

Truck is looking awesome!! Great work!

[SATURN5]

Nope not dead, just don't want to clutter it. Looks good! I'm thinking of running FR's myself.

[hackster]

Haha...

I just like to see if anyone is paying attention from time to time

Truck is still at the painters, hope to pick it up tomorrow if all works out well, if not Sunday morning.

Thanks fellas for chiming in, it warms my heart and I will keep posting.

Sean

[trick]

Its never dead or finished. I've been watching with anticipation of some time slips. Trick

[Randle]

It's sure not dead, you got one nice truck, very clean looking build, thanks for sharing.

[hackster]

Thanks guys, its getting there....slowly but surely.

Been a busy few days around here. Dropped the truck off at the painters on Friday morning for him to touch up a few spots of paint, color sand and buff the front fenders and the hood and a few other nick nacky areas on the truck.

While it was out there I spent a few hours roaming around the wrecking yard trying to find some small stuff and a good flasher switch and bezel to go on the dash.

Picked up the truck this morning from Aaron's place and him and Chris did another great job on the truck. It looks awesome.

Got it home and off the trailer, my LS swapped 240 was in the driveway and I thought it was pretty cool so I snapped a quick photo...



Also been toying around with running one single emblem on the truck, just a little indicator that its not a 390 in it anymore.

So I came up with this. Its all color matched to the body and looks pretty unsuspecting.





I think its pretty discreet, but not 100% sold on it. If I like it Ill go ahead and order something up that is the proper logo.

This is an LS badge from a later model cavalier and an X from a newer ford explorer.

I was getting the knock p code still so I order a couple of sensors and the replacement harness for sensors out of the valley cover. I pulled the intake this afternoon replaced both of the knock sensors and cleaned out the holes and threads.

I noticed while in there that I have some excessive oil on the backside of the valves while the engine is not running. Not too sure what is causing that, probably need to come up with some kind of evac system is my guess...

Fitted up the vacuum lines from the intake to the fuel pressure regulator and the wastegate.

I was going to swap out injectors and MAP sensor but it would be a total pain to load it up in the morning and get it on the trailer to go to the tuner.

I am super nervous about the tuning/dyno tomorrow.

Hope I post up that all went well and its on the road for good.

Sean

[guhfluh]

I don't see any crankcase ventilation or PCV valve in the pictures, do you have any? I still like to run a normal PCV system on a boosted engine, just a good flowing one, with a valve that seals under boost, add oil separators if needed, and a crankcase vent hose to the pre-turbo intake for vacuum under boost.

Hopefully all of the bugs are worked out before you hit the dyno for tuning. You're flying through this project and it's looking beautiful!

[SATURN5]

Now we need more info on that 240......

[hackster]

Still working on PCV Crankcase setup....they are ok with tuning it like is and I will deal with it when I get it home.


On the 240. Its a super clean 1981 242 DL, no sunroof, manual windows car. All original paint except for the flat hood.

Has a 99 5.3 with a t56 behind it. Car is 3090 lbs wilth a full tank of fuel and full interior, stereo and all that stuff. Has 13" R brakes on the front and a limited slip rearend. Makes 290 hp and 300 ft lbs from 2500-6500 and gtes 29 MPG on the highway. Real 3 piece CCW Classics all the way around and some descent suspension on the car make it a super fun daily driver.

When I first got it swapped....

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m58 ... 4-orig.jpg

10,000 or so miles later and a little cleaner under the hood. With the CCW's and R brakes now.

[Motoboy]

Love the truck! What BS did you do on the wheels again? I was looking at 18/20's or 20/20's but undecided on which way to go. I'm running a Fatman MII up front so plenty of room there, just not sure if I'll be happy with the 18/20 combo.

Thanks,
John

[69NVF100]

Sean, I saw the truck at Goodguys but you must've been out checking out the cars. The truck is awesome very nice work sir.

[hackster]

Sean, I saw the truck at Goodguys but you must've been out checking out the cars. The truck is awesome very nice work sir.

Thanks man. Sorry we did not get a chance to meet up at the show. I was a little surprised at just how many cool cars were there to look at. We walked around a lot and still did not get too see all the cool cars and trucks. There were a ton of people interested in the old f100. Lots of questions and time talking with people.

I wanted to check out your truck it looks super clean.

I was pretty bummed at how poorly the truck is running though. I have never had this many issues with an LS swap before...hopefully I can get this all sorted out so I dont have to buy a coyote motor

So burned out after weeks and weeks of working on the truck, I think I am just going to take a bread from it.

Sean